Great to see Bally back in action. Wonder why she isn't using her protected ranking of 227 ? That would have meant she was seeded in the qualies.
Going to be a fascinating week with Anne, Mel, Sarah B, Georgie, Sarah C, Bally and Natasha all competing in front of Nigel Sears and Nigel will be naming his Fed Cup team in a couple of weeks. Apart from Sarah C (and probably Natasha), they all have a chance of being picked so very much all to play for.
Looking ahead to the rd1 qualies matches:
Easy match for Sarah Coles. Primo-Carrau is 19, unranked and has lost all 5 matches she's played on the pro tour without getting more than 2 games in a set. Almost certain that it's going to be a Stoop v Coles all British clash in rd2, have to favour Georgie in that one.
Natasha's opponent Arutyunova is ranked over 200 places lower at 658, she's been competing in 10Ks on outdoor hard and clay in Spain and Portugal so far this year. Her best performance came at the end of February when she reached the semis in Mellila. Natasha should win this match but she's very unlucky getting drawn in Vierin's section. If Natasha's at her very best then she can beat Vierin but that'd be extremely tough. Vierin's currently ranked just inside the top 200 but has been as high as 103.
Elena Baltacha returned to the womens tour in style with a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing of Russian 15th seed Elena Tchalova in the second qualifying round of this week's Gran Canerias 25K.
Britain are now guaranteed a 5th representative in the main draw as Bally will face the winner of the match between Georgie Stoop and Sarah Coles. Sarah defeated Spain's Cristina Primo-Carrau 7-5, 6-1 in rd1.
Georgie and Sarah have played once before. Sarah won 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 indoors in the Sheffield 10K at the start of 2006. However, it could be a different story this time round, as Georgie has improved in leaps and bounds over the last 12 months while Sarah's progress has stalled.
Natasha Khan also reached the 2nd qualies round with a scrappy 6-1, 6-7, 7-5 win over Russia's Diana Arutymova. Natasha has an extremely hard next match against Italian top seed Nathalie Vierin. Vierin is currently ranked just inside the top 200 and has been as high as 103. In February she made the quarters of WRA Bogata on Columbian clay but in January she lost to British no 3 Katie O'Brien in rd2 of the Belfort 25K.
Great to see Bally qualify! Hopefully Stoop will get into an LL spot.
Cirstea will be tough, but Bally is supposed to be a top 100 player on her day. I don't think that Cirstea has beaten too many top 100 players till now.
Disappointing results given how fast the courts are over there.
I think that Bally would have beaten Cirstea with a few more matches under her belt, she should still be pleased to have come out of the week with 2 great wins in the qualies and she's shown that she's definately top 250 standard playing-wise atm...maybe better.
@ Anne having to withdraw. Maybe the wrist injury flaring up again
I'm not surprised at Sarah losing to Ungur. Ungur is one heck of a player on fast surfaces, I've no idea what she's doing down at 506...she's at least 250 places better than that. She can absolutely rip the ball off both wings and has a good serve too. I watched both of her matches in Sutton qualies, and her opponents did everything to try and mix things up, but she still outhit them 2 and 2. She has the potential to be top 100.
Although Mel's ranked higher than Petkovic, the German has had much better results this year - three 25K semis while Mel's won just 1 match since mid-November.
Elena Baltacha returned to the womens tour in style with a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing of Russian 15th seed Elena Tchalova in the second qualifying round of this week's Gran Canerias 25K.
@ Anne having to withdraw. Maybe the wrist injury flaring up again 
